When the history of the early 21st century is written, the Federal Reserve will take a prominent place. During the financial crisis, the nation's central bank pretty much single-handedly prevented an economic catastrophe — thwarting a run on money market funds, arranging the sales of failing banks and acting as lender of last resort.

Since then, it has kept up its frenetic pace as it tries to jolt the economy back to life. In three rounds of bond-buying known as quantitative easing, it has nearly quadrupled its lending from pre-crisis levels, amassing a $4 trillion portfolio of U.S. Treasury notes and mortgage-backed securities.

This has been necessary in part to counteract Congress' sorry record of ignoring the government's long-term fiscal imbalances while substituting destructive short-term measures, such as the sequester and the government shutdown, that slow economic growth. So it is always disconcerting to see Fed chairmen getting treated like pinatas by members of Congress who seem blind both to history and to their own irresponsibility.

But Janet Yellen, President Obama's choice to replace Ben Bernanke atop the 100-year-old institution, acquitted herself exceptionally well in her confirmation hearing Thursday. It goes without saying that she should be confirmed. She has a bulletproof résumé, having served at the Fed, first as San Francisco president and then as vice chairman in Washington, during the financial crisis and its aftermath. She has public policy experience, having served at the White House during the Clinton administration. And she has a reputation for consensus-building and for communicating the Fed's policies clearly to the public.

Perhaps most important, she seems to have a knack for knowing when to put the Fed's foot on the pedal and when to apply the brakes. Her reputation as a monetary "dove" — someone concerned much more about economic growth than inflation and therefore quick to apply the gas — is based entirely on the necessities of recent years. During the 1990s, when the economy was strong, she voted 27 times to hike interest rates and not once to lower them.

This is important because the quantitative easing has to be cut back in the not-too-distant future. The Fed might well have begun the process in September had it not been concerned about a possible government shutdown and the threats of a default on U.S. Treasury debt leveled by many House Republicans.

The Fed's easing has kept the post-crisis economy growing. But it also has many perverse effects. It artificially juices the economy and the stock market while making it difficult for retirees and other savers to earn a decent return on their money. Its end will not be pain-free.

It also has a way of making the rich richer. It makes borrowing for a house or a business cheaper, but only for those with great credit. Banks know they will suffer some losses on existing loans when rates rise, so they're reducing their risks of default by being unusually picky about whom they lend to.

No one is better positioned than Yellen to know when and how to pull back and allow rates to rise to their natural levels. She did very well in the financial crisis. And she should do well in its aftermath.

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